TNG Reviews

I mostly love Wil Wheaton's reviews of TNG. Sometimes, I think he rips into the show just a tad to much, but they're pretty much hilarious. Here's a new one.

I used to watch TNG as a kid and I really liked it, so it's sometimes hard to read him tearing apart something that, as a kid, I loved. However, as an adult, I can see what he's talking about.

I'm not what you would call a huge sci fi fan, but I do like it. I guess I'm a picky sci fi fan. I watched TNG as a kid, I liked Voyager and I've heard good things about Enterprise, but I didn't like DS9. I'm not a huge fan of most of the movies, and I haven't ever managed to tune in for a whole episode of TOS. I'm pretty picky about what I'll watch... no Battlestar, no Buffy, no Star Wars, etc. I'm not sure where exactly it is that I draw the line... some things just don't float my boat I guess.

More recently, I've really enjoyed Stargate. I watched SG1 for a couple seasons. What I enjoyed most about it was that they embraced the cheesyness of sci fi and didn't try to hide it. Yes, the goa'ould were overdressed, pompus, and cheesy. And Jack O'Neill never missed an opportunity to point it out. Actually, it was when the show switched to a more sinister villian that I stopped watching.

I quite enjoy Atlantis. I watched the last season because it was pretty much the only thing running during the writer's strike. I absolutely fell in love with it. I actually think it's a bit more funny than SG1, but I'd say that I also don't get the same chemestry from the cast as I did with SG1. Maybe that's purposful. With SG1, they go off world, they fight, they go home and have beers. With Atlantis, the characters don't ever get to turn 'off'. They're constantly on Atlantis and while that might cause characters to bond, I'd also guess that it would cause tensions to continuously run high.

My point? Giant, vampire-esque villians who suck your life out through their hands are cheesy. It's best to just embrace it.

Recently, I've read 'The Android's Dream' by John Scalzi. It took me a long time to get through it, but I'm glad I finished it because I didn't see the ending coming at all. At all. I wouldn't say it was one of my favorite books (just a little on the weird side for me), but I can certainly recognise good writing, even if it isn't exactly my style.

I'm currently re-reading 'The Doom's Day Book' by Connie Willis. I read it for an English course years ago and loved it. I'm loving it again. It's a mix of sci fi and period. Great book. If you haven't read it, I highly recommend it. Basically, it's about a student, Kivrin, who goes back to the middle ages and, well, experiences things that they had been pretty sure weren't happening during the year they were sending her back to. In the present, people are dying and we have no clue why. Are the two linked? In any case, the whole 'we're all dying' thing makes it really hard for people in the present to go find Kivrin.

Next on my list? 'The Kite Runner', 'A Thousand Splendid Suns', and 'The Golden Compass'.